Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me,
Liz Scott,
Sitting in my mum's back garden.
She's got quite a large lawn.
It used to be that this garden was used for vegetables and lots more bedding and plants,
But because she can no longer manage the garden,
A lot of it now has been laid to lawn.
And across this lawn at the moment are little white daisies and little purple flowers.
I'm not sure what they are.
Actually,
But they're beautiful little purple flowers.
So against the backdrop of the green of the grass is yellow,
Purple and white.
And I can see the bees and butterflies buzzing around,
Really enjoying this.
And I personally love this.
Even my mum said,
Gosh,
The lawn looks really pretty,
Doesn't it?
But I know that it's more conventional for these lawns like this to be mown.
And I'm pretty sure my brother,
When he sees this,
Will go,
Oh,
I'll get the lawn mower out and give the grass a cut this week.
But for me,
To my eye,
It's gorgeous.
And today's reflection comes about after seeing a friend who's going through a journey of chemotherapy.
And as we were sitting having a cup of coffee,
I asked her,
What have you learnt,
Like on a philosophical level,
When it comes to your health journey?
What have you seen that's been important for you?
And without missing a beat,
She said,
Letting people know that you care.
She went on to explain that over the past few weeks as she's been having her chemotherapy,
One of the things that has been incredibly important to her is that people have reached out and either given her physical help or just reached out and told her that they're thinking of her.
And she said,
Do you know what?
There were times when I was feeling really low and feeling unwell,
And a text message would come in.
And it was simple,
She said.
It might just be saying,
I'm thinking of you.
And she said it made the world of difference.
And out of this,
One of the things she realizes is that she wants to let people know that she cares about them.
Because often it isn't until something like this happens where you maybe come across a challenging health issue,
Or you're going through a challenging part of life,
You don't actually realize that people do care,
That you are loved.
So for her,
She said,
My mission is to let people know that I care about them.
If they're not going through something that's particularly difficult at the time.
And I really love that.
I love that idea.
And it had me reflect as well.
It had me reflect on,
Well,
Yes,
Isn't it a good idea to let people know that you love them,
To let people know that you care about them.
You don't have to wait until something happens where you reach out and support them.
It might be that you just let them know right this minute.
So even a little text of thinking of you might be all it takes.
And we then went on to discuss how sometimes we might be prompted to send a text just to say to someone thinking of you and then we might talk ourselves out of it.
And again,
The thing that we had a conversation about today is like,
Don't talk yourself out of it.
Just send that text.
If it's coming from a good place and you're thinking of someone and you want them to know,
Let them know.
Because you don't know what they're going through and you don't know what impact that might have on their world.
Today then is a little reflection on letting people know that you care.
It's a reflection on being aware as well of people caring for you,
Maybe in ways that you don't initially see,
But that awareness that there is a lot of love and care that we exchange between each other.
And that's a really important part of life.
And maybe you feel that it would actually be a good idea to let people know that you care about them.
In the same way my friend is doing that.
She's not waiting for a crisis to happen.
She's just reaching out and letting people know that she cares.
And when we parted company today from the coffee,
She said to me,
Liz,
I really care about you.
And that really made me smile inside.
It was really good to hear.
Today is all about letting people know that you care.
Let me know your reflections on this.
I love hearing from you.
And don't forget,
I'll be back again tomorrow with another five minutes in nature.
